New Orleans mayoral candidates can agree: Crime is critical issue

Ted Jackson / The Times-PicayuneTwo 19-year-olds' bodies were found by New Orleans Police Department cadaver dogs in an abandoned house in April. Getting a handle on crime is one thing all the mayoral candidates can agree on.

With the region's top local, state and federal public safety leaders sitting at rapt attention, New Orleans' District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro started his speech with a blunt announcement.

"Crime is not the biggest issue in the city," he said. "Crime, to me, is the only issue."

Cannizzaro's comments echo similar pronouncements tossed around in recent weeks by those seeking to become the city's next mayor. The candidates may not be willing to pronounce public safety the only critical issue, but all agree that reducing crime is one of the most important civic problems. Each one has stated the selection of a police chief will be their first major decision.

They've laid out basic platforms to tackle crime, all agreeing on the value of walking beats for police officers and protecting witnesses of violent crime. And they've promised to be more engaged than Mayor Ray Nagin, reaching out to victims and visiting crime scenes.

So when the new mayor does take office, he or she will be tasked with trying to answer a difficult question that has dogged the city for decades.

How do you fix the city's seemingly intractable crime problem?

To even begin, one must try to understand the very real problems facing the New Orleans Police Department and the city's criminal justice system, and the social ills affecting each.

Interviews with more than a dozen police officers ranging in rank, local attorneys, community leaders, and state and federal law enforcement officials revealed a shared portrait of a long-troubled police force still suffering the effects of the 2005 flood. Police are trying to control persistent crime in a city beset with struggles, ranging from blight to poverty to poor job opportunities.

While several police officers offered their observations under the condition of anonymity -- officers are barred by policy from speaking with reporters -- the NOPD's spokesman did not respond to a request for interviews with the department's top brass.

The Police Department stands on the cusp of both major change and major struggles. An ongoing federal civil rights probe examining the actions of more than a dozen officers during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has potentially explosive consequences, as indictments are widely expected.

Police Superintendent Warren Riley has repeatedly brushed aside criticisms of the NOPD in recent months, saying crime statistics show that his strategies are working. Violent crime is down, while homicides dipped slightly.

Despite the recent improvements, both the overall crime and murder rates are high compared to other cities.

City will get new police chief

Each mayoral candidate has pledged to hold a national search for a new police superintendent, picking a crime fighter to lead a department that many agree currently suffers record-level morale problems. All candidates have expressed faith that a new chief -- almost guaranteed to be from outside New Orleans -- will reshape the department from the top down.

But this new leader will face a damning lack of public trust in the police force, which will take an even further hit if officers are indicted in the Katrina probe this year. Even without federal charges, local arrests of police officers for alleged misconduct have abounded in recent years.

Late last year, a survey financed by the New Orleans Crime Coalition found that 33 percent of citizens expressed satisfaction with the NOPD. Some within the department, as well as mayoral candidates on the campaign trail, have described the current situation as a crisis.

"The NOPD sets the tone in the city," one high-ranking officer said. "And when you have corruption and competency issues, mismanagement and a lack of transparency, it creates this crisis in confidence."

Calling for a boost in customer service, several mayoral candidates recently stressed that the NOPD has lost sight of its basic mission to protect and serve the city's taxpayers. Candidates have called for better police response times, more polite officers and an increase in public information and transparency. Jim Gallagher, a retired NOPD sergeant and spokesman for the Fraternal Order of Police, acknowledged that a chunk of officers are out of touch and overtaxed, trying to respond to service calls in as little time as possible.

"If you want to be treated as a professional department, you have to treat people with respect," he said.

Gallagher chalks it up to a lack of resources and training, outdated technology and equipment, and a disparate level of punishment handed down to officers. Together, the issues create an alarmingly low level of morale.

"I went on strike in 1979, and I tell you, morale is lower now," Gallagher said. "We want a well-run, professional department."

Gallagher said the next police chief will need to "take a hard look at the budget, at manpower and the allocation of officers."

2007 report details problems

Many of these same criticisms were laid bare in a 2007 assessment of the NOPD by high-profile consultant Lee Brown. The original report was never released publicly and the NOPD has denied its existence. Draft versions, obtained by the Times-Picayune, show a department whose own members say is top-heavy with administrators, debilitated by low morale, and suffering from a weak command-and-control structure, as well as a lack of money, staff and equipment. In addition, patrol officers do not clearly understand or support policing tactics touted publicly by Riley.

Despite its flaws, the NOPD, as Riley often notes, was rebuilt from rubble. The 2005 storm debilitated the department's infrastructure, and no other police agency has ever faced similar tribulations.

Today, nearly all of the police divisions are back in buildings instead of temporary trailers. Equipment has been replaced. Staffing is up to its highest post-Katrina levels, at more than 1,600 commissioned officers.

In addition, long-frayed relations with the district attorney's office are on the mend and the two agencies are working more hand-in-hand. More cases are being accepted by prosecutors and more are going to court. Cannizzaro lauded the NOPD in his recent "state of the criminal justice system" speech, calling city cops "dedicated front-line soldiers in our war on crime."

The NOPD also continues to make cases with federal agencies such as the FBI, ATF and DEA, long-running partnerships that were ramped up after the storm.

"Every week we are making indictments based on the fine police work of the NOPD," said Jan Mann, first assistant U.S. attorney in the eastern district. "It is routine."

'Police can't cure societal ills'

Even the best-laid policing plans, however, can't cure crime.

"The community tends to want the Police Department overnight to solve these problems," noted David Welker, special agent in charge of the FBI's New Orleans division. "The police can't cure societal ills."

The ills in New Orleans are many. Blight, a historically troubled public school system, poverty, derelict playgrounds and low-wage jobs are just a handful of the challenges.

"There is no question that we have to look beyond law enforcement," U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said. "We can't ignore these economic and sociological factors."

The next mayor will be one of the best-positioned people to affect change as the city pushes farther from the 2005 flood.

"You have to give kids options and offer alternatives to crime," Letten said. That includes increased youth and recreation programs, and better access to drug and mental health treatment, he said.

Several community groups also say the next mayor needs to focus on job-to-work programs for formerly incarcerated people, offering them better options than selling drugs on a street corner.

Still, many of the candidates have only skimmed the surface in proposing policing strategies and tactics.

Community policing

One program that will likely remain is COMSTAT, computer-fashioned maps that plot crime and provoke police to figure out how to deploy resources. The model is widely used in departments across the country.

Community policing is another tactic cited by almost every mayoral candidate. But it is a widely misunderstood term. This policing style, which caught fire in the 1990s, tries to reduce reliance on the 911 response system by dedicating officers to neighborhood intervention and problem-solving, which can range from crime-fighting to trash removal to truancy.

The strategy also relies heavily on the trust and assistance of the community, which acts as the eyes and ears for police. But the NOPD's most touted model of combatting crime -- flooding neighborhood "hot spots" with scores of tactical teams of officers -- can often conflict with the community policing model, when people who might be cooperative witnesses are busted for minor infractions.

"We are still stuck in the days of calling things community policing," said one veteran NOPD officer. "But we are just jumping out and jacking people up. We need to look at trends and causes, not just flooding areas with more cops."

A more refined version of community policing, a strategy called problem-oriented policing, requires police to work intimately with community members to identify the persistent areas of concern and, together, come up with a targeted plan to fix those problems, often by working with other city agencies.

A zero tolerance approach is yet another option for the next mayor and police chief to consider. This was the strategy touted by former Superintendent Richard Pennington in the mid-1990s. Arrests for all kinds of crime -- largely drug-related -- went up and murders, for awhile, went down.

But murders began to tick up again at the end of Pennington's term and into the tenure of former Superintendent Eddie Compass. Skeptics about the zero tolerance approach noted that during the 1990s the federal government flooded urban areas with police aid and programs, which dried up as this decade began.

Skepticism about the efficacy of widespread arrests of minor offenders -- and even low-level drug users or dealers -- remains. Arrests continue at a steady clips, while the courts spend most of their time on narcotics offenses, not the violent crime most citizens want significantly reduced.

Whatever approach the next administration takes, making a major dent in the city's crime problems and reshaping the NOPD will be a tough task.

"You want a mayor that believes fighting crime is a top priority," said Gallagher, the FOP spokesman. "And you want a mayor to install a police chief that gives him tools and the autonomy to carry out that mandate."

Brendan McCarthy can be reached at bmccarthy@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3301.